Guseinov Wins Year's 1st Titled Tuesday

Evidently, many titled players resolved to play more Titled Tuesdays in 2018! With 259 entrants, this month's Titled Tuesday was easily the largest yet.

With an impressive 9/10, GM Gadir Guseinov was clear first.

I recently read GM Judit Polgar's excellent book, A Game of Queens, in which she recounts her experience playing the excellent Azerbaijani team with Teimor Radjabov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Vugar Gashimov, and Guseinov in the 2002 Bled Olympiad. A more talented team would be hard to come by: Their ages were 15, 17, 15, and 15!

GM Gadir Guseinov, January 2018 Titled Tuesday champion.

It's hard to imagine that the "old man" of the group, Mamedyarov, would have had possibly his best year 15 years later and crash into the world's top five. Also GM Rauf Mamedov was not on that team, but he is in roughly the same peer group. This year he broke 2700 for the first time.

Returning to Titled Tuesday, the fourth board, Guseinov, also had a nice 2017, qualifying for the Speed Chess Championship and playing Magnus Carlsen.

He won many fine games in this Titled Tuesday, but the one I must share is this lovely third-round win against the popular streamer, GM Krikor Mekhitarian.

Another game and achievement that must be mentioned is GM Alexandra Kosteniuk's beautiful win with a double rook sacrifice like the immortal game between Anderssen and Keiseritsky. This game was played in round two as Kosteniuk was en route to an excellent 4.5/5 start.

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Kosteniuk finished tied for third with 8/10, and while she is always a contender, it is the first time she has won a cash prize. It is also the first time any female player has won a place prize in Titled Tuesday.

Another beautiful game from a third-place finisher was GM Yuniesky Quesada's classic double-bishop sacrifice.

Thanks to all for playing in our first Titled Tuesday tournament of the new year! Will we break 300 players in 2018?

Newly shaven GM-elect Aman Hambleton returned for his first commentary gig since his masterly crowning and shaving. He was sporting a new hairdo. Many thought Aman's hair had even been colored, but that was just the lighting. Not sure why so many were confused.

We had many great streamers competing for the $100 streamer prize this month. Cast your vote on Twitter for your favorite stream! If you want to be considered in future, just stream your event and tweet a link at @chesscom!

We had lots of great streamers playing in our first #titledtuesday of 2018! Who is your pic to win our $100 streamer prize?